depressed, ppl. a.
(dɪˈprɛst, poet. dɪˈprɛsɪd)
Also 7–9 deprest.
[f. depress v. + -ed1.]
1. a. Pressed down; put or kept down by pressure or force.
| 1609 Daniel Civ. Wars v. i, Close smothered lay the lowe depressed fire. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 191 The deeper any body sinks, the greater will be the resistance of the depressed fluid beneath. |
b. Her. = debruised.
| (In mod. Dicts.) |
2. Lowered, sunken, or low in position; lower than the general surface: opp. to elevated.
| 1658 Willsford Natures Secrets 71 High exalted places, and low depressed dales. 1823 Crabb Technol. Dict., Depressed Gun, any piece of ordnance having its mouth depressed below the horizontal line. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. ii. 13 In the centre of the old depressed crateral plain. |
3. Having a flattened or hollowed form, such as would be produced by downward pressure; spec. said of convex things which are flattened vertically (opposed to compressed); e.g. a depressed arch.
| 1753 Chambers Cycl. Supp. s.v. Leaf, Depressed Leaf, one which has the mark of an impression on one side. 1828 Stark Elem. Nat. Hist. I. 266 Chelidones. Bill very short, much depressed. 1845 Lindley Sch. Bot. v. (1858) 56 Legumes snail-shaped, depressed-cylindrical. 1874 Lubbock Orig. & Met. Ins. i. 17 The larva of Coccinella..is somewhat depressed. |
4. fig. a. Lowered in force, amount, or degree.
| 1832 H. T. De la Beche Geol. Man. 7 Alternately..under the influence of a raised and a depressed temperature. |
† b. Astrol. Opposed to exalted. Obs.
| c 1430 Lydg. Thebes i. (1561) Venus directe, and contrarious and depressed in Mercurious hous. |
† c. Low in moral quality, debased. Obs.
| 1647 Jer. Taylor Lib. Proph. xx. ¶7 These Propositions [e.g. ‘the Pope may Dispense with all oaths’] are so deprest. 1661 Boyle Style of Script. (1675) 182 That doth much more argue a depressed soul than an elevated fancy. |
5. a. Brought low, oppressed, dejected, downcast, etc.; esp. in low spirits.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. ii. vi. ii, A good Orator alone..can comfort such as are afflicted, erect such as are depressed. c 1790 Willock Voy. 28 America..stands ready to receive the persecuted and depressed of every country. 1792 Cowper Let. to Bagot 8 Nov., My spirits have been more depressed than is common, even with me. 1818 S. E. Ferrier Marriage xxi, Mrs. Lennox..seemed more than usually depressed. 1845 S. Austin Ranke's Hist. Ref. II. 199 The fall of the Council of Regency, and the depressed state of the nobility in general. 1872 Geo. Eliot Middlem. lxxxi, I thought he looked rather battered and depressed. |
b. depressed area, an area of economic depression.
| 1928 Britain's Industrial Future xx. 276 Already the local rates in the depressed areas have to shoulder too large a part of the burden of relieving unemployment. 1958 Listener 11 Sept. 371/2 There are no depressed areas now. |
c. depressed class(es), in India, persons of the lowest castes, ‘untouchables’.
| 1931 Economist 17 Oct. 696/1 The other Minorities, notably the Depressed Classes and the Anglo-Indians, have still got to be fitted into the scheme. 1957 Encycl. Brit. X. 13/2 He [sc. Gandhi] undertook several more fasts in the interests of communal tolerance and the rights of the depressed classes. |